You Have Not Wearied Yourselves for Me Part 2

Jesus endured the shame and the suffering, the pain and the

humiliation, the heavy burden and weariness so that He might deal

with sin and its consequences. It was as if He carried this burden of

our sins to destroy them in a cosmic furnace. He walked this path of

obedience for our sake – so that our sins would not be remembered

any more.

We ought to be profoundly sorry for what we caused Jesus to

suffer, and not take His sacrifice too lightly or reduce it into a nice

story. We must be eternally grateful for Jesus’ profoundly self-giving

act of love, and in particular that He gave up his life at the line that

divides life and death.

What Jesus has done for us must be experienced personally. It is

important that each one of us realise that we have wearied God with

our offences and have burdened Him with our sins.

We need to be there along the path on which Jesus walked weary

steps carrying the burden of sin. We need to hear Him say, “You have

burdened me with your sins.” We need to witness His weariness that proved how far His love for us would go.

We also need to hear Him say, “Yet you have not called upon me,

O Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel” (Isaiah

43:22) – and turn it into a personal message.

God is kind to us. He has not wearied us with the unreasonable

and tiring demands of a religious cult (v. 23-24). His expectations are

simple. Yet, we have not responded to His loving act. Our offerings

of love and devotion to Him have been half-hearted, respectable and

courteous but not arising from the depths of our being. God can see

through the superficial piety.

The Saviour with the wounded face looks at us to ask, “I have

wearied myself for you. Have you wearied yourself for me?”

None of our actions or attitudes can match what Jesus has done

for each of us. If we really understood the immensity of His loving,

sacrificial act, we would not remain in the muddy puddles of our

superficial religiosity.

Instead, we would readily plunge into the ocean-depths of

gratitude and be prepared to weary ourselves for Him. Then we would

recognise that His grace is so great that instead of weariness, we would

find rest, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30).

There are those who, having laid such a heavy burden on Jesus,

are unwilling to weary themselves for Him. In their unwillingness they

remain strangers to the immense grace and presence of God. May

we have a living encounter with the divine Burden-Bearer, and a life-

changing conversation with Him!

Reflection: Christians fail to weary themselves for Jesus by responding to Him

in a half-hearted manner – respectable and courteous but not

arising from the depths of their hearts. How can this be overcome?

Reflect on your own response to Jesus.